THE MEANING 



OF 



OUR NATIONAL BEREAVEMENT 



1^ 

\2^ 



^ "^tvcisxtwX S]ertn0n 



UPON THE DEATH OF 



President McKinley 



BY 



REV. RANDOLPH H. McKIM, D. D. 



The Meaning 

OF 

Our National Bereavement 



^ SBrmcu 

ON THE 

DEATH OF PRESIDENT McKINLEY 

DELIVERED IN 

THE CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY 

Washington, d. C. 

On Sunday, September 15, 1901 

by the rector 
REV. RANDOLPH H. McKIM, D. D. 

rioXtr yap ayav 

*H8t7 aa\ei'£t KdvaKoi'<)l>t(rtti Kapa 
3v6!jiv It ovy ot<i tc <f>OLVLOV croAov 

Sophocles, CEdipus Tyrannus 



Published by Request 



good, however illustrious. But here, if anywhere, it 
is meet to ask the meaning of an event so solemn — 
so distressing to our whole land. Here, if anywhere, 
the Christian heart must ask what message such an 
afflictive dispensation brings — what God .is saying 
to the American people to-day by permitting such a 
strange and awful event. The prophet cries in our 
text, " Shall there be evil in a City, and the Lord hath 
not done it ? " 

It would be infidelity, it seems to me, not to 
recognize that this great national affliction ought to 
be considered in the light of the Divine Pro\ddence. 
There is a profound sense in which it is true that 
this calamity which has overtaken us is from God. 
We must look back of the assassin who fired the 
shot — back of the wickedness that conceived the 
deed — back of the demoniacal hatred of order and 
law that furnished the inspiration of the awful 
crime — to the Will of God which permitted it to be 
done, and which did not spare the life so precious to 
the people. " Shall there be evil in a City, and the 
Lord hath not done it f " 

Well then let us recognize in this afflicting event 
the hand of tlie Divine Providence, and let us ask, 
here in the Sanctuary of God — here with bowed 



heads and hushed hearts in the Divine Presence — 
what is the meaning of so terrible an occurrence ? 
What is the lesson which God is teaching us by this 
strange dispensation ? 

Seeking an answer to this question, the first 
thought that demands expression is that this event, 
like all others, has not happened without God. 
Human malice and wickedness has its liberty of 
action. It lays its plot, and strikes its cruel blow in 
the exercise of that freedom which is given to men. 
But it cannot go beyond the limit of its tether. In 
inscrutable \visdom the Almighty sets bounds to the 
free action of His creatures. 

When Jesus Christ stood before Pilate, and that 
proud Roman said to Him with some petulance, in- 
dignant at His silence, " Knowest thou not that I 
have power to crucify thee, and I have power to re- 
lease thee? " the majestic Prisoner answered, " Thou 
couldest have no power at all against Me, except it 
were given thee from above." 

Yes, even a Pilate and a Judas and a Caiaphas 
could not have compassed the death of Christ, un- 
less they were permitted by the Divine Providence 
to do the awful deed of murder upon the holy and 
spotless Son of God. 



The fact is of deep interest and value in our re- 
flections upon the awful crime which has stricken 
down our noble President, and plunged our whole 
nation into mourning. It ma}" teach us that this 
assassin, witli all his scheming, and with all his 
■^-icked and reckless determination to do that 
good man to death, could not have compjissed his 
end, unless liberty of action had been permitted him 
from above. The high and sublime purposes of the 
Divine Government of the world for the develoi> 
ment of character and for the advance of the race in 
the path of intellectual and spiritual and moral pro- 
gress can only be attained by giving to man the god- 
like prerogative of freedom — freedom to do evil as 
well as to do good ; but then there is a limit to the 
exercise of this liberty. Man cannot so use it as to 
defeat the ultimate plans of the Divine AVisdom. 
There reside in the Providence of God resources of 
power and wisdom and love which will ever defeat 
the designs of evil men in the long run, so that even 
in the flush of u terrible success, the purposes of 
■wickedness and crime against mankind and against 
the Kingdom of God are brought to nought. 

It was the purpose of that malign plot of Caiaphas 
and the chief priests with Judas Iscariot, in com- 

c 



passing the judicial murder of Jesus of Nazareth, to 
crush out His religion and to strangle His Church 
at its birtli. Their plot succeeded, as it seemed, and 
the Prophet' of Galilee was put to an ignominious 
death on the cross. Thus far the Divine Providence 
permitted them to go, but no farther. In their ulti- 
mate end and purpose they utterly and absolutely 
failed. Infinite Wisdom completely baffled them. 
Not only did they not succeed in crushing the Relig- 
ion of Jesus, but the means they employed became 
the mightiest instrument of its propagation. The 
success which they fancied they had achieved when 
they saw the Son of God bow His thorn-croA\-ned 
head and give up the Ghost became the means of 
the triumph of His Church, and the shameful, 
bloody cross was transformed into the symbol of 
glory and victory ! 

We may be very sure, my brethren, that the ig- 
nominous failure which befell the attempts of 
C'aiaphas and Judas against the Anointed Christ 
will ultimately overtake all plots and conspiracies 
against Truth and Righteousness on this earth. The 
Almighty has not vacated His Throne. He is the 
Ruler and the Judge of the world. His hand of 
unerring wisdom is guiding the course of events and 



7 



ordering the evolution of human history to His own 
sublime ends. " Clouds and darkness " may be 
round about Him, but " Righteousness and Judg- 
ment are the habitation of His throne." ' AVe some- 
times vainly seek to read the meaning of His Provi- 
dence. This is one of those times. It is an inscru- 
table dispensation. The reasons for it are hidden 
from us. We can only say with the Psalmist, " Thy 
way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, 
and thy footsteps are not known." 

But one thing we know. The success of the plot 
against our President is only for the moment. The 
assassin has stricken him down to death, and this 
mighty nation of freemen is to-day bereaved — sor- 
rowfully bereaved because its chosen ruler has been 
slain. But the real ultimate purpose of the assassin 
and his fellow conspirators, if he had any, -^-ill igno- 
minously and utterly fail. Their blow was aimed, 
through President McKinley, at our Government — 
at Law and Order and Justice and Civilization. 
Too well did that blow succeed in striking down 
that noble man who ruled in integrity and purity 
and wisdom over the destinies of the American 
people. But has the assassin's bullet reached its 
ultimate object? Have Order and Jui?ticc and Gov- 

8 



eminent been wounded or weakened by that wicked 
shot which Avas fired in Buffalo nine days ago ? 

On the contrary, the shot has fallen far short of 
its object. The order of Society has not been 
touched. The framework of government has been 
strengthened, not weakened. The sword of Justice 
has been sharpened not sheathed, and it will de- 
scend at length not only upon tlie wretched mis- 
creant who did the dark and cruel deed of death, 
but upon the thing which he represented — that 
foul shape of Anarchy which has, too long, been 
permitted to stalk about in this land of Freedom, 
polluting it by its vile presence, and, unhindered 
plotting its schemes of assassination in our midst. 
Yes, this seeming triumph of Anarchy will become 
the instrument of its destruction. The foul murder 
of William McKinley seals its fate in this free land. 
The people will stamp it out. 

To-day the American people stand with tearful 
eyes and sorrowing hearts by the bier of their 
chief — the man whom they have delighted to honor 
and to whom they gave their confidence and their 
love in a truly remarkable degree ; but this their 
common sorrow binds them closer to each other — 
makes them stronger and braver, and more deter- 



mined to couserve their institutions, and to conse- 
crate their energies to the great destiny which God 
has set before them. They are girding themselves 
to the solemn duties of their national calling this 
day, with liearts more chastened, more earnest, more 
sincere, more unselfish, than before. The character 
of their murdered chief will inspire them. His up- 
rightness and honesty and devotion to the interests 
of the whole country (for he was not the President 
of a party, but of the American people), will long 
be a beacon to shed light on their path. William 
McKinley is dead indeed, but " he yet speaketh " — 
and his words and his example will speak to the 
American people more mightily from the grave than 
ever they did from the White House. 

That last speech of his, spoken only the day be- 
fore his assassination, was indeed a noble utterance. 
It was replete, as perhaps no previous utterance of 
liis luid been, with the wisdom of a broad and com- 
prehensive statesmanship. He spoke not as the 
head of a great political party, but as tlie Father 
and counsell(ir of his people. And his words will 
sink deep — deeper now than if tliis awful tragedy 
had not occurred — into the hearts of the people. I 



cannot but think they will have a strong and 
beneficent influence on our public policy. 

But I must not permit myself to speak here and 
now of Mr. McKinley as a statesman. I will not even 
dwell upon what I regard as possibly his greatest 
claim to the gratitude of the American people — I 
mean his work of reconciliation between the North 
and the South, estranged by the civil war, and 
never made wholly one till this man ** whose heart 
had grown as broad as the Union," seized the oppor- 
tunity offered by the Spanish War to knit them 
together again. 

But, as a minister of Jesus Christ, and speaking 
here in the Sanctuary of God, I emphasize the 
influence he has exercised, and will still exercise, 
though he lives no more, for virtue, for purity of 
character, for the faith and the practice of the 
Christian religion. Here is a part of him that is 
invulnerable. The bullet of the assassin cannot 
reach his private character, his life and example as 
a man. That still lives, and by that he, " being 
dead, yet speaketh." 

For more than a generation this man has Ifved 
in the public eye. The " fierce light " that beats 
upon the steps of those who aspire to political 

11 



honors has been full upon him ; but no spots or 
stains of vice or dishonor have been revealed. His 
has been a blameless life. He has ever been an 
example of domestic virtue. In an age when the 
sacred bond of matrimony has been so often ruth- 
lessly broken, or the purity of that divine institu- 
tion debauched by unclean living, or its beauty sul- 
lied by manifold marital infelicities, this illustrious 
man has set a truly beautiful example of chivalrous 
devotion and unswerving affection to the wife of his 
youth. Who shall estimate the value of such an 
example as a moral power in the land ? 

But more than this. William McKinley being 
dead yet speaketh, not only as the friend and patron 
of virtue, but as a humble and sincere disciple of 
Jesus Christ. The reality and genuineness of his 
Christian faith has impressed itself upon the people 
of the country. They have believed in him as a 
devout follower of the meek and lowly Jesus. And 
so the great and far-reaching influence of his illus- 
trious position as the chosen ruler of a nation of 
eighty millions of people has been thrown into 
the scale for the Christian Faith in a time when 
Unbelief has been putting forth its mightiest efforts 
for the overthrow of the Religion of the Nazarene. 



13 



As Ciiristians we can but thank God for such an 
influence as this for the cause so dear to our hearts. 

Perhaps, my friends, we may find here one of the 
hidden reasons why God permitted this good man 
to suffer that dastardly assault, and pass through 
that fiery ordeal of pain, and finally succumb to 
death. It may have been God's way of putting his 
Christian character to the test, that our people and the 
world might see how genuine and hoAV true it was, 
and so might have a fresh and illustrious example 
of the power of the Christian Faith to enable men 
to come off conquerors and more than conquerors 
over pain and suffering and death. 

Men may sneer at Christian people and impugn 
their sincerity and the reality of the faith they pro- 
fess, but when they see a man upheld in such a 
trial as this, in such agony of body, in such physi- 
cal weakness, and in the sharpness of death — when 
they mark his forgiving spirit toward the assassin — 
expressed, even as he sank wounded to the floor, in 
the ever memorable words, *' Let no man liarm 
him ! " — his splendid courage, his Christian resigna- 
tion to the Will of God, his unselfish tenderness to his 
invalid wife in such an hour of supreme trial — ah, 
then their unbelief must break down and they 



must confess the truth and })ower of the Religion 
of Christ. 

Thus the tragic sufiferings and death of this illus- 
trious man have placarded — to use an expression of 
St. Paul* — have ^' placardedy^ I say, before the eyes 
of all Christendom, yes and of the pagan peoples too, 
the power of the Cross of Christ to give His disciples 
victory over pain and death. Those whispered 
words of prayer, as the President lay on the opera- 
ting table, 

" Thy Kingdom come, 
Thy Will be done," 

will l)e lieard all over the world : Those half-chanted 
lines of the dear hymn, 

" Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee, 
E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me," 

will sound out from his death chamber into milHons 

of the abodes of sickness and pain : And tliose last 

words of the dying President, 

" It is God'8 way. His will be done," 

will strengthen the faith of his fellow countrymen 

all over the land, and teach them how to bear this 

inscrutable dispensation of tlie Divine Providence. 

It is in such thoughts as these that we shall begin 

to spell out the meaning of the great sorrow of this 

* See Bishop LightftxH's rendering of Gal. ill : 1. 

14 



hour. A living ex-President of the United States 
said very truly when news of Mr. McKinley's death 
came to him, " It is hard at such a time as this to 
calmly and patiently await the unfolding of the 
purpose of God." But, my brethren, that purpose 
will be unfolded in due time. It begins already to 
unfold itself in the light of that death-scene in 
Buffalo. " Shall there be evil in a Oity, and the Lord 
hath not done it f " No, it cannot be. It is the 
Lord, whose hand is laid on us in affliction. This 
thing is from Him, for our chastisement, and for our 
instruction, and for the greater glory of the Cross of 
Christ in the hearts of our people. He means to 
rebuke us for our materialism, for our absorption in 
the pursuit of wealth, for our excessive love of the 
pleasures of sense, and to remind us that in all the 
pride of our greatness we are dependent on His 
bounty and on His protection. For our God is 
He who bringeth good out of evil, and light out of 
darkness and victory out of defeat. Or, to use the 
language of this same prophet from whom our text 
is taken. He is the God " who turncth the shadow 
of death into the morning." 

My dear friends, as we close our services to-day 
let us bethink us that for our murdered President 

15 



God has already " turned the shadow of death into 
the morning." You remember his pathetic question 
uttered the day before the end came, as the shadows 
began to close round him, 

" Is the eunshine all gone ? " 
Ah, the sun had set for him on the shores of time, 
only to rise in greater glory, never to set again, on 
the shores of the Better Land. There, good and 
faithful servant of God and of thy people, the sun- 
shine has come again, and thy God has turned the 
shadow of death into the eternal morninji:. 



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